A common playing style for stringed instruments of the lute family, especially guitars, involves the use of a glass or metal slide bar to “stop” the strings for pitch as an alternative to pressing the strings against a fingerboard or fret.
Originally, a glass bottleneck was used to achieve different sound affects in stylizing a player's musical composition. Slide bars made from metal have been developed in a broad range, providing varying sound effects. Depending upon the size, material composition and/or design of the slide bar or slide ring, different sound effects may be produced.
Despite the widespread usage of metal slide bars in the playing of stringed instruments, a number of problems have also come from their bulky construction and the acoustic properties of metal. Regular size slide bars involve fully inserting one of the musician's fingers inside the bar. This does not allow the musician to flex his or her fingers while playing or to use the fingertip for fretting. The finger is sacrificed and makes the musician unable to play many standard and altered chords. Similarly, there are harmonic limitations with standard size slide bars, allowing only four out of a possible twelve intervals on a regularly tuned guitar.
Standard slide bars can cause difficulties in jumping between frets and excessive noise as the large surface area of the slide creates noise on adjacent strings. Even when the traditional tubular design is cut in half, or to a third of its regular size, the musician's finger flexibility is limited and the number of payable intervals is limited. There is no ability to change the size of the area on the slide that touches the strings.
Metal slide bars do not provide the same desirable acoustic properties of glass materials. Glass slide bars do not exhibit the same durability or have the same ease of manufacture as metal slides. Broken glass is hazardous to the musician's fingers.
The need exists for a safe and durable slide ring that exhibits the superior acoustic properties and that allows fingering of chords and an extended range of intervals.